Almost four years have passed since Babita Sarjou vanished without a trace and although chances of finding her probably stand at zero, her mother says she needs answers so as to get closure.
Caribbean American Domestic Violence Awareness (CADVA), a non-governmental organisation has been paying keen attention to this case since the mother of one disappeared on the eve of Diwali in November 2010.
Plans are currently in the works to put out a $100,000 reward for any information that can lead to Sarjou and to erect a billboard in the woman’s honour.
Champa Seenarine, during a recent interview with Stabroek News was every emotional and issued a plea to anyone who may have information about her daughter’s disappearance to come forward. This Diwali period leading up to November 4 will be a very painful time for her.
“With CADVA’s help things may happen. God sent these people to help me. Dead or alive I need to find her,” she said amidst tears.
The woman said she hasn’t heard anything more from the police on their investigations. “So far there has been no word. Nothing at all,” she said adding that over the years they have been hearing rumours. She said that in addition to the police she is getting no cooperation from her other children.
She said she got word about four months back that Sarjou was in Mahdia. Seenarine said her partner visited the area to check on the information but came up empty handed.
“When I hear a lil clue I believe that it is true because I want her to be here. So everything I hear I will check on it,” she said sadly.
Despite the length of time that has passed Seenarine said she is still clinging to the hope that her daughter is alive. “Depending on how they have her she maybe can’t make contact with me or maybe in time I will accept she is dead,” she said. But she added “We need to find her. It is hard for me to be living and knowing that she is missing and there is no clue. It almost 4 years… and still nothing.”
The woman said that after this period, come Christmas, she mourns again, this time for husband. In 2012, Doodnaught Sarjou succumbed on Christmas Day from his injuries he had sustained in an accident ten years earlier. He had been hit by a drunk driver on the Soesdyke Public Road leaving him unable to walk and speak well. At the time of his death, he was still awaiting justice.
Redirecting her thoughts back to her missing daughter, she said she has sleepless nights. “We need to find her dead or alive. It hurts me a lot when I go into her room.”
She again insisted that her daughter’s husband knows more that he is saying about her disappearance. Efforts to reach the man for a comment were futile.
Seenarine had previously told this newspaper that her daughter was in a troubled marriage in which she was being abused both physically and emotionally. She said her daughter often told her that her husband would do many bad things to her but she could not say anything.
The husband, against whom Sarjou had filed a harassment complaint was arrested and held for 72 hours after she disappeared. He was later released. At the time of the woman’s disappearance the harassment matter was before the court; it was subsequently dismissed.
Seenarine insists that the husband said things in a text message on Diwali Day of that year, which indicated that he knew something.
She said telephone records revealed that many calls were exchanged between the man and her daughter around the time she disappeared. Stabroek News had been told by a source close to the investigation that phone records showed some suspicious activity between a city resident and a man closely acquainted with Sarjou. The records also showed that the man lied about the communication between himself and the city resident on the night Sarjou disappeared. Two days after she disappeared, a call was made from Sarjou’s cell phone to the number of the city resident. The city resident had told investigators that he did not know Sarjou and never spoke to her. He claimed that he met the man in a Sheriff Street bar six months prior to the woman’s disappearance.
Seenarine, in the recent interview with this newspaper, questioned why the husband did not organise a search party and more so why he went to file a missing person’s report less than 24 hours after the woman went missing.
“He did nothing…He never never went out and look for her,” she said adding that he has refused to let her see her grandson who is about eight years old now. She said she was advised to make efforts to see the child but others persuaded her not to as this may have been a risk to her life.
“I will be glad to see him but I think it is best he remains where he is,” she said adding that she wants the boy to know about his mother as she has suspicions that he is being told untruths about his mother.
She questioned why her daughter would have gone and left her son. This makes no sense to her and it is why she has concluded that there is foul play involved in her daughter’s disappearance.
“If Babita wanted to keep away from her son she would have told me these things. She would have told me she wanted to go away. She wouldn’t walk away from me,” she said tearfully.
Seenarine stated that she still hopes that her daughter is alive and strongly believes that her husband is the “key person to the whole story.
“I cry everyday….when I keep thinking about it I cry. If she is dead and we find her bones at least I can get closure”, she stressed.
According to reports the then 28-year-old Sarjou left her Timehri home on the eve of Diwali—November 4, 2010—informing her family that after work she was going to view the motorcade with her estranged husband and four-year-old son. She promised that she would have been back home at around 9 that night. Relatives never saw or heard from her again.
Closure needed
Meanwhile CADVA member Dianne Madray told Stabroek News that the woman’s case will be highlighted in the group’s upcoming performance of ‘Let the Women Speak-Part II His Side, Her Side and The Truth’. The event is scheduled for October 30 at the Pegasus Hotel and is being held in memory of Babita Sarjou.
Madray explained that the event will bring alive some stories which have hit the headlines in Guyana and relate to women who have gone missing.
She said that International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is celebrated annually on November 25 and this is the perfect time to revisit the Babita Sarjou case.
Given how the court harassment case had ended, Madray told Stabroek News that she was disappointed “with our court system as no justice was found for Babita but I am giving my commitment that I too will not rest till we find her.”
She said that an anonymous donor will be sponsoring a billboard for missing persons with specific reference to Sarjou. Additionally, CADVA will put up $100,000 on a missing persons ad for any evidence that would lead to finding Babita Sarjou and to reopen her case. “We are hoping persons will come forward and help us to find her and bring closure,” she said.
“We cannot allow our women to continue to disappear, die and we act as if nothing is wrong and we do nothing. Families need closure,” she stressed. She called on persons who may have useful information to come forward.
